:(

Well. That hurt.

Congratulations Barca. Easily the best team in Europe, having pretty much schooled the second best team. Congrats on the treble too, it’s a brilliant achievement. :sadthumbup:

Barcelona v Manchester United – Stadio Olimpico, Rome. UEFA Champions League Final, 2009.

I’m not going to say much (in terms of analysis, i.e) because everything’s been said and done to death. I’m hellishly nervous right now, which I suppose is some proof of just how nutty most fans’ love for football and the club they follow can be. 13 hours and a couple of minutes to go I think. 6 hours of sleep and a paper on Friday. Yep, there’s a fair cumulation of emotions right now. I can only hope Rio starts, becaue if he doesn’t I think the game will be far, far closer. Evans is brilliant, but he’s young and when his nerves get shot it takes him a while to get his head straight. We cannot afford that against Barca, especially as we don’t have Fletchertron for tonight. I don’t honestly care that much about whether Giggs starts or not, whether Berba starts or whether Park will play in midfield and so on. I think any team we put out are capable of taking Barcelona to task. Anderson and Carrick will really, really need to step up though. It’s also nice that we’re playing against Barca, because I know if we lose it’ll be a fair cop – we’d be losing to the best team in Europe right now. Plus, they aren’t Chelsea/Liverpool. That helps, massively.

Anyway, here are some videos:

If only Ronaldo wasn’t such a twat on the pitch.

Two positives from the military efforts in Swat

1. Pakistani society finally seems to be on it’s way to completely detesting the taliban and not even giving a general polite nod towards their broader ‘goals’ – if they can be considered goals.
2. Imran Khan and the PTI of late are receiving a proper hammering, if The News’ letters section is anything to go by. Especially enjoyable is the vitriol directed at Supreme Abhorrent Retard Shireen Mazari. To an extent kudos to the PTI and their faces for sticking to their guns, except one can only wish what they were on about had some semblance of sense.

I also wish those who want to enter into negotiations with the Taliban would stop comparing this issue with that of Northern Ireland. I’m sick to death of people using that as a barometer, forgetting the fact that the NI issue is incredibly complex that weaves arguments and political movements based around secessionism and irredentism, and says NOTHING about implementing a religious lifestyle over EVERYONE – a religious lifestyle that is incredibly violent.

But yeah wait, so the taliban are ‘oppressed’ (!?!) and thus they must be like the IRA/UDF (other gazillion forces that were at work during the troubles?).

I really hope the Government doesn’t forget the IDPs when they, hopefully, head back to a peaceful Swat and that we can provide them with the development Swat would need and then some.

Another CL final

Haven’t posted in a bit (as has become the norm, apparently), but this is all I have to say right now:

Absolutely gutted for Fletchertron. He’s probably been one of our best players this season, and always shows up for the big games. He was also a definite starter in Rome, so seeing how he got sent off for a fucking pathetic decision by a ref who was shit from the first minute is incredibly disheartening. In fact it’s even managed to take the edge of a great achievement – reaching a second Champions League final in a row.

I hope we get Barca. Two matches a season against Chelsea are enough. Bring on the in-form team in Europe, so that either we get beaten by the best, or we show them up.